Energy

Floor Speech

Mr. DURBIN. Mr. President, in deference to the Presiding Officer, I am going to forgo my speech on the Stanley Cup playoffs until another Member is presiding later in the day.

Instead, I wish to address the speech made by the Senate Republican leader on the issue of our environment.

Senator McConnell of Kentucky tells us if we are going to discuss the state of our environment in America, it is a war on coal and a war on jobs.

I think he is wrong. I think the Republican approach to the environmental issues is a war on science. It is a denial of the overwhelming scientific evidence that the weather affecting us on this Earth is changing. We know it. Storms, extraordinary storms, are more frequent and more violent than they have been. We know the polar icecap is melting. We know the glaciers are disappearing. We know the impact this will have on humanity as well as wildlife. Yet from the other side there is a complete denial of science. This is a war on science.

Their position is also a war on public health. Twenty-five million Americans suffer from asthma. Nearly one in five children with asthma went to an emergency department for care in 2009. To ignore the state of air pollution and the public health challenges it presents is to ignore the reality of the state of our environment and its impact on public health.

Finally, the public approach when it comes to this issue is a war on this Earth we call home. Unless and until the United States shows leadership when it comes to the environment, it is difficult, if not impossible, to convince other nations to do the same.

Today the President is going to make a speech which will be controversial about what to do with our environment. I think he is on the right track to engage us in a national debate, a debate about the legacy we leave our children and grandchildren when it comes to this Earth we live on.

Senator McConnell's State of Kentucky is just south of mine. He has coal reserves in his State, as we do in Illinois. We have seen the use of those reserves, because of some of the contamination and chemicals that are associated with that coal, diminish dramatically over the last several decades.

I haven't given up on coal if it is used responsibly. This administration has invested in clean coal projects. One is called FutureGen 2. It is a project to capture the emissions coming out of smokestacks from coal-fired electric powerplants and to bury them deep beneath the Earth, a mile beneath the Earth. It is capture and sequestration of these emissions. It is an energy research experiment which we are engaged in right now in central Illinois which I believe holds promise for the use of coal in the future in a much more responsible way.

How much can you store below the Earth in Illinois? We can store the emissions of over 50 coal-fired electric power plants operating for 50 years. Let's engage in that research. Let's find responsible ways to use coal.

This notion that moving toward energy efficiency and reducing pollution is going to cost us jobs isn't borne out by the evidence. We are seeing dramatic investments being made in manufacturing for solar, wind, and geothermal. We are seeing dramatic investments creating new American jobs because we are setting new standards for more fuel-efficient cars, for example. This is good for every family, every business in America. It is good for the environment, and it creates jobs. To suggest that dealing with the environment costs us jobs--exactly the opposite is true.

Let me also say a word about the Republican leader's concern about working families living paycheck to paycheck. Time and again on this side of the aisle we have offered to the Senator and his colleagues a chance to reduce the tax burden on working families in America by asking those who are doing quite well to pay a little more, and they have consistently said no.

Again, we have asked the Republican leader and his colleagues to join us in raising the minimum wage and they have said no. So this concern about families struggling paycheck to paycheck should be borne out by some of their votes. That, to me, is essential.

Let me close by saying this: I believe the environment is a challenge we must face head on. To ignore it is to ignore reality. Lake Michigan, when measured just a few months ago, was at its lowest depth in any measured time in recent history. What we are seeing in global warming is the evaporation of our Great Lakes. It is a scary thing to think about what this will ultimately do to us.

The President is going to face the issue head on. There are some who want to run away from it. They can do that if they wish. But their war on science, their war on health, their war on those destructive forces that are affecting the Earth is shortsighted. We need leadership on this, bipartisan leadership.

Let me close by saying--and then I will yield to my friend from Maryland--that I will come back shortly after morning business to speak about this historic immigration bill. The 67-to-27 vote on the floor last night--bipartisan vote--is an indication that we have finally come up with a historic measure and one that is important for the future of this Nation. We will do many things around here, and important things, but hardly anything as important as fixing this broken immigration system. The fact that we can do this in the Senate on a bipartisan basis is a tribute to this institution getting back on its feet and putting aside some of the political battles of the past. I only hope our friends over in the House are watching this and understanding that only through bipartisanship can we cure and solve some of the problems our Nation faces.

I yield the floor.

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